Mitchell to Return to Mideast; Palestinians Prepare for `Endgame'

By Gwen Ackerman and Jonathan Ferziger -
May 16, 2010

U.S. envoy George Mitchell
returns to mediate a second round of Middle East talks this week
after Israel said it is through making gestures and a
Palestinian negotiator said he’s ready for the “endgame.”

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon said
yesterday his country has taken enough measures to build
confidence for Middle East peace negotiations and Palestinians
must prove they’re serious about the process.

“I don’t think Israel should do any more,” Ayalon said in
an interview at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem. “We have
done everything we could in economic and humanitarian terms, in
terms of political gestures, and now it is up to them.”

Israel and the Palestinians started indirect U.S.-mediated
“proximity” talks during a visit by U.S. Middle East envoy
George Mitchell earlier this month. The negotiations, which
allow the sides to start talking without meeting, are the first
such breakthrough since talks ended in December 2008.

Mitchell is scheduled to resume his shuttling this week
between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem
and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West
Bank city of Ramallah, said Kurt Hoyer, the U.S. Embassy
spokesman in Tel Aviv. He said it was not yet determined what
day Mitchell will arrive.

The negotiations began after Israel promised not to build
for two years in an east Jerusalem neighborhood and Palestinians
agreed to try to stop anti-Israeli incitement. Israel agreed to
postpone the construction in Jerusalem after repeated calls by
U.S. officials, including President Barack Obama, to stop
settlement building.

1967 War

Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967
Middle East war. The area is sought by the Palestinians as the
capital of their state.

Saeb Erakat, who leads the Palestinian negotiating team,
declined to respond to Ayalon’s comments. “I don’t want to get
into an argument over gestures,” he said in a telephone
interview. “We’re in the proximity talks now and I’m going to
try to give Mitchell the chance he deserves to help them
succeed.”

Erakat later told an Israeli audience in Tel Aviv that he
believes the Mitchell-mediated talks could lead to an overall
peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority and all Arab
countries.

“I’m going to demonstrate once and for all that as
Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas is fully ready for what it
takes to achieve the endgame,” Erakat said in an address to the
Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.

Israel has removed roadblocks throughout the West Bank to
boost the Palestinian economy, called a 10-month partial
construction freeze in Jewish settlements and Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu agreed that a peace agreement would lead to
the establishment of a Palestinian state, Ayalon said.

At least 180 roadblocks have been taken down across the
West Bank since 2007, army spokeswoman Major Avital Leibovitz
said. The Palestinian economy expanded 6.8 percent last year,
the International Monetary Fund said last month.

Meanwhile, Palestinians called for a boycott of Israeli
goods produced in West Bank Jewish settlements. The Palestinians
also urged members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development not to accept Israel before the Jewish state’s
membership was approved last week, Ayalon said.

‘Call of Duty’

“The Palestinians go beyond the ‘call of duty’ in trying
to delegitimize Israel and attack it,” Ayalon said. “This is
not acceptable.”

In a letter to OECD members, the Palestinian Authority said
that admitting Israel into the organization “would be like
accepting its occupation of the Palestinian territories.”

Asked about the OECD letter at the Israeli institute last
night, Erakat said both Israelis and Palestinians have continued
to inflict harm on each other.

“The sooner we reach peace, the better it will be for you
and for us,” he said.

The previous round of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations
ground to a halt at the start of an Israeli military initiative
in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip that the government said was
intended to stop cross-border rocket attacks against its
southern towns and cities.

The Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza said 1,450
Palestinians were killed during the offensive, while Israel put
the number at 1,166. The army said 13 Israelis were killed in
the fighting.

The militant Islamic group Hamas is considered a terrorist
organization by the U.S., the European Union and Israel.